Description and research notes
Front progressive proof for the Banco de Portugal 50 Mil Réis, printed in a single intaglio color to test composition and line fidelity before the final multi-color stones were prepared. Without underprint or overprint, it exposes the engraver’s hand—the bare guilloche network and portrait cartouche that later defined the completed note. PMG 25 EPQ Very Fine.
The EPQ designation is exceptional at this grade, indicating fully original paper quality and unaltered archival surfaces—critical for proofs that typically show handling or trimming. Only two examples of Pick 110pp1 appear in the PMG census, placing this among the rarest surviving Portuguese progressive proofs. Each intermediate pull was meant to be destroyed once calibration finished; very few escaped the printer’s vaults. This proof documents the engraver’s first successful alignment of the plate and thus predates the issued specimen by a critical production stage.
Viewed alongside the matching specimen (Pick 110s), it completes the evolution from concept to circulation design—capturing Portugal’s reliance on British engraving houses for security printing during the First Republic and offering one of the only fully traceable proof-to-specimen pairs known for any pre-Escudo denomination.